Twitter whistleblower raised security concerns, said the platform misled users

A former security chief of Twitter, Peiter Zatko, has turned whistleblower and testified that the company misled users and US regulators about gaps in its security.

Peiter Zatko claimed that Twitter underestimated the number of spam and fake accounts on the platform. His accusations can affect a legal battle between billionaire Elon Musk and Twitter, where Mr. Musk is trying to cancel his $44bn deal to buy the social media platform. However, Twitter says the allegations of Zatko are inconsistent and inaccurate. It said Zatko was sacked in January for poor performance and ineffective leadership.

Mr. Zatko, in his damning revelation, accused Twitter of failing to maintain stringent security practices and lying to Elon Musk about bots. In July, he filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the complaint, Mr. Zatko criticized how Twitter handled sensitive information and claimed that the firm failed to accurately report some of these matters to US regulators.

The former security chief also revealed his concern about how Twitter handled data. He alleged that too many employees had access to user data and sensitive systems. He was worried that the social media giant had no workable disaster recovery plan. He claimed that Twitter had failed to properly delete the data of people who previously canceled their accounts.